Blackwood is the latest expansion released for Elder Scrolls Online, available on PC and consoles since June 2021!
The story
The story of Blackwood leads us to travel through a new area, the Black Marsh and the Dead Lands, to learn more about a great mystery, the secret of the ancient emperors of the Longères who made a mysterious pact with Mehrunes Dagon, the Daedra prince. destruction (and also change, revolution, energy and ambition, in short, a good CV!).
In this story, we will have to investigate the past of the emperors of the Longères, in particular alongside Eveli Fleche-vive (who we have already met and helped in Wrothgar), her brother and some new characters.
ESO being very focused on the scenario, I will not say more! Personally, however, I find the story a bit "simple" compared to the previous ones, with few twists and fewer surprises, the latter can easily be "guessed" if you take the time to read the various notes and documents. However, we can say that the rest of the scenario that will be released with the next DLCs will bring its share of additional surprises and mystery!
Even if it is quite "nondescript", the story is not bad for all that. One of the interesting elements is that you will have access to several additional discussions and new dialogue options if you have achieved certain things in the previous extensions (I do not detail more in order to avoid possible spoilers). While not fundamentally changing the script and story, it's still nice to see our past actions and accomplishments reflected. Although it would have been exciting to get a bigger impact. But hey, we're in an MMORPG and not a solo RPG, we can't expect too many branches and divergent scenarios according to our choices (even if that would be excellent!).
The content of the extension
The major addition of this expansion is the arrival of companions. The latter are kinds of "pets" that fight alongside the player.
Currently two in number (Zenimax having announced that others will probably be added in the future), you have to complete a quest for each of them in order to make them allies and have them accompany you. Of course, it's not possible to have both active at the same time, although you can quickly switch between them.
It will be possible to increase your relationship with each of them. Each having their own personality, they will not react in the same way to your actions and will approve (or not) of your actions. For example, the first mate loves to read and your relationship will increase if you read books/notes/libraries or cook booze, but will hate if you pick up flying insects, use your blade of doom or use it. call while at the Dark Brotherhood Sanctuary, while the latter will love it if you're doing quests for the Mages Guild or scavenging, but will hate it if you steal items or run away after committing a crime.
Although having a class assigned by default (the first being black blade and the second, dragon-knight), it is possible to equip them and "orient" them as you wish, just like your own character who can do all the roles. You can make him a "tank", "heal" or "DD" companion, depending on the equipment you provide him and the skills you grant him.
You can also customize their appearance by equipping them with disguises you own, and even swapping your companion's mount with one of the mounts you own. By going to a dye shop, you can also customize their color. It should be noted that equipping a disguise/mount to your companion does not prevent you from continuing to use it!
The small downside is that the equipment only has two methods of obtaining it. Basic white equipment can be purchased from NPCs, while all other equipment qualities come only from loot from enemies or chests, with an extremely low rate of obtaining. Personally, after having explored the entire map and done all the quests in the expansion, while searching absolutely everything, I have not yet managed to change all the "white" quality equipment. For your information, I got only one purple equipment, the rest being green equipment, so 1 weapon.
It's a shame that it's not possible to craft gear yourself, especially since companion gear also has its own "traits" system, which would have been worth researching (at the image of our features for our own equipment) in order to make equipment, even if it means making it a possible new profession.
In combat, companions bring a certain interest and are quite useful. Their power is not equivalent to that of a player of course, but they are powerful enough to feel the difference. However, it is not possible to summon them in content intended to be done solo only or in group content (dungeon) if the group is already full. However, for those who like to do group dungeons, solo (like me, never finding players who want to play without a rusher 😀 ), this provides significant support and now allows you to do some dungeons that were impossible solo, because of certain mechanics requiring to be at least 2.
Apart from the companions, the content of the extension is similar to what we usually see. Small dungeons, two public group dungeons, sky shards, side quests all over the map and, for those with the profession of archaeologist, new objects to search for, including new legendary equipment!
The expansion features Dead Land Invasions, the anchor/dragon/geyser/storm equivalent of previous expansions. They appear randomly on the map via portals that must be crossed. These lead us to an area of the Deadlands, there you will have to kill enemies and bosses while advancing, until you reach the central area in which all the players from each area come together to face the final boss. Dead Lands take roughly the same time as an Elsweyr Dragon to complete, though often when entering a portal you'll just be sprinting to the end boss as other players came a few minutes before and already cleaned everything.
As with every expansion release, the "anchors" are very chaotic and messy due to the fact that there are a lot of people (in the first days, there were more than fifty of us, to the point that the end boss n didn't even have time to trigger his first shield, that he was already dead). It is therefore difficult to judge the "complexity" and difficulty, and even to take advantage of these Dead Lands. It will be, as always, much more playable and enjoyable in a few weeks.
Conclusion
Blackwood is a good extension, like the previous ones. However, I find that it lacks a little “something”. The addition of companions is certainly really excellent, but is, I find, very "withdrawn" from the rest of the extension. It's a shame that they have absolutely no impact on the environment, gameplay, quests, etc. So, we can say that the extension is not bad, but produces more a strange impression of "DLC++" than of real extension. Perhaps the 1 year production deadline is starting to be difficult to keep in order to be able to achieve real novelties and that an additional delay for the next extension would be beneficial.
But hey, let's forget the small point of disappointment and see only the positive: the content offered is still quite substantial, there is a lot to do and explore, the quests are really interesting and there are also many NPCs encountered in our previous adventures such as Alchemy encountered in Summerset, Revus Demnevanni of Vvardenfell or even the Duke of Crows from the base game! And all that is not so bad!
